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Fear Factory return with their first album in five years featuring the return of their original guitarist Dino Cazares.

Since Cazares’s departure in 2002, Fear factory haven’t been the same, the last two releases, Archetype and Transgression, were well below par for Fear Factory. But now Burton C. Bell and Dino Cazares have reconciled, they can continue from where Digimortal left off.

The album starts with the title track, Mechanize. Instantly you know this is the real Fear Factory, Insanely tight guitar playing, superb blast beats (from new drummer Gene Hoglan) and Burton’s brutal vocals.

The first single from the album, Fear Campaign is a highlight of the album, it sums up the band perfectly and is possibly the best song the band have recorded.

Powershifter, the first track we heard from the album is next, a great track which again is classic fear factory, this may be the only downside of the album, its nothing new, but that being said, this is an album for Fear Factory fans, who have waited through the bands dark years for this incredible return to form. People who haven’t listened to the band will also be able to use this album as a starting point.

Designing The Enemy is the first time this album slips, it’s not a bad song, it’s just not up to the extremely high standard set by the first seven tracks. After this comes Metallic Division (a 1.28 instrumental) filler, basically.

The album ends with Final Exit, which is brilliant. The samples used in the song help give it a really epic feel. It’s a fantastic way to end a superb album.

Bell: “The title track describes our world as the soulless program that it is. Every part serves a purpose. There is no such concept as individuality within the machine. We have carved our place inside the machine. We have grown banal within our apathy. We have become mechanized.”

02. Industrial Discipline

Bell: “The term was taken from the book ‘The Third Wave’. It explains the path in which the industrial complex, and it’s construct, initiated the path of conformity. Everyone worked for the benefit of the machine, not for themselves. The discipline begins in mass education, determining time and placement, superiors and subordinates, rank and file. Humanity has been disciplined to do the work for the machine, therefore becoming the machine.”

03. Fear Campaign

Bell: “It was not necessary to camouflage the insanity of the world of today within a science fiction setting. The world today has become the world that writers predicted long ago. The controlling authorities are constantly, and successfully, utilizing the fear tactic to control the masses, through misinformation and distraction. Fear is bondage. Fear is slavery. Fear is Hell. Fear is control.”

04. Powershifter

Bell: “Change is an inevitable course in nature and humanity. This world has seen much change as of late, and it is true globally, nationally, and personally. This is a true story of a personal struggle against a controlling and ineffectual organization. There is always a choice, and the choice is never easy.”

05. Christploitation

Bell: “Christianity has become a parody of itself. Through the ages, exploitation of myths, words, and the use of the fear tactic, have ruled the masses. We have seen so much death and destruction in the name of a man made god that it means nothing. What is faith, but the belief in an archaic superstition; an overwhelming fear to face reality of the world today. Invoking the name of Christ has become a common practice The original concept does not apply. This is control through conformity and a false sense of morality.”

06. Oxidizer

Bell: “One molecule of oxygen can alter the course of the world. It can start the deterioration slowly through rust, or it can quickly incinerate everything in
it’s path. Either way, change is going to happen. This is about the trial by fire.”

07. Controlled Demolition

Bell: “So many questions, so many lies, so perfect a destruction. All one has to do is consider the theories. Why is it so difficult to believe that our elected officials are above destructive corruption? History has proved that absolute control through violence and deception is a common theme. Consider the alternative thought, and you may see there is truth behind the False Flag.”

08. Designing The Enemy

Bell: “Everything that occurs is a direct consequence of our own actions, creations, and manifestations. The machine that creates will ultimately be our demise. It is coming, the future is here.”

09. Metallic Division

Bell: “The rhythm of mechanical death…”

10. Final Exit

Bell: “Based on the organization of the same name. A group of individuals with enough compassion to assist those who are interested in ’self-deliverance’ from their intolerable pain. Is it compassion that drives the ability to help one commit suicide? This is a statement about the world in which we live, when the only cure for cancer, AIDS, MS ( and any other debilitating disease ) is death. Where is compassion to to assist our fellow human being in their time of unbearable pain, to keep them alive without hope of survival? Where is the compassion to find a cure, or to eliminate the diseases entirely? There is no profit in the cure… only pain and suffering.”

Now I know theres a hell of a lot of confusion about who or what Fear Factory is right now, but in my eyes its Burton and Dino’s band, and thats the band who have annouinced a new album. Mechanize!!

Regarding the albums sound, Burton C. Bell said: “It has the raw aggression of what ‘Soul Of A New Machine’ was but it has… I would say it has the maturity of ‘Obsolete’ . When I say ‘maturity,’ I mean that it has the songwriting skills that ‘Soul Of A New Machine’ did not have whereas ‘Obsolete’ did.”

The album will be co produced by the band and Rhys Fulber, and mixed by Greg Reely. Mechanize is due for a February 2010 release.